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Book of Eli
Director The Book of Eli is arguably one of the best movies of the century. Set in a post-apocalyptic universe, it centres around a cryptic man named Eli. The enigmatic 'Eli' is played by Denzel Washington. Eli has travelled west for thirty years, guided only by a voice (whom we later discover is God). Eli has incredibly keen senses and an almost superhuman fighting ability, which he demonstrates time and time again throughout the movie. Eli's task is to deliver a book to a 'worthwhile' place, which is, presumably west. The Book of Eli was directed by twins, Albert and Allen Hughes. Their parents divorced when they were two years old, and they began making movies at age 12. They grew up in Pomona, California; born to an African-American father and Armenian-Iranian mother. They made their first short film, How To Be A Burglar shortly after freshman year. Their next work, Uncensored videos was broadcast on cable, this introduced them to a broader audience. After high school, Albert began taking classes at LACC Film School. Two shorts recognized the twins reputation as advanced filmmakers and allowed them to direct Menace 11 Society (1993), which made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and grossed nearly 10 times as much as its $3 million budget. After following up with Dead Presidents (1995) they directed the feature-length documentary American Pimp (1999). Albert was hired to direct the 2005 horror-thriller Hide and Seek (2005) but backed out before production began because of the budget. He also has a daughter from a previous relationship. Allen dropped out of high school in the 11th grade to begin directing music videos. He later decided to take some film classes at Los Angeles Community College. Reflection Denzel Washington In the Book of Eli, Denzel is basically a lethal weapon on legs, taking on everything that comes his way and always ending up on top. “Jeff Imada, who is a follower of Danny Inosanto , who was a contemporary of Bruce Lee trained Washington. Denzel trained for four to six months. He started out with stretching, moving and exercising with his eyes closed, in an attempt to get into the vibe. Denzel said that when you're young you don’t realize how important stretching is, but when you get older it's really important. He said: “I don’t do it enough, but it helps a lot. Yeah, it’s good stuff." He might not have kept up with his training since finishing filming, but Washington made sure that whatever you see in the movie is actually he. “Kicking but, Washington wanted to make sure that people knew it was him doing all that, and no stuntman. In conversation with Denzel Allen Hughes said, ‘Well were going to silhouette.’ I go, ‘Silhouette? As hard as I’m working, you’re not even going to show me after all that? Well, make sure, get close or something. It’s me, make sure they it’s me. “Its me. That’s me. What I learned from these masters like Danny Inosanto is he lets that energy come towards him and he goes through it. Denzel says, “I didn’t want to be karate man.” Washington says in a lot of ways Eli is similar to many characters he’s played before. “Most of the characters I play, a lot of them, there’s been some kind of evolution, spiritual evolution. Look at Malcolm X who went from hatred to a whole complete different doctrine or Hurricane Carter. Even something as dark as Training Day, the first thing I wrote in my script was, “The wages of sin is death.” In the original version of Training Day, they had Denzel dying in the smallest way. Denzel said, “No I can’t. In order for me to justify living in the worst way, I have to die in the worst way. “There was still in my mind a lesson to be learned there or an evolution. Characters/Symbols Eli is ready to kill and ready to die to protect the book he believes he’s been given by God to carry west. In this apocalyptic world, Eli’s bible might be the last one. The bible was a big part in a war that caused a nuclear holocaust thirty years earlier that led to an effort to destroy all remaining copies. Eli doesn’t know what to expect when he gets to his destination, he just knows that he is called to carry the book. He brings the book out every night and that’s when he reads it, other than that he keeps the book hidden from sight in his backpack . The way he carries the bible is like the Ark of the Covenant the Israelites had to transport. The book of Eli makes you think of how much power the bible can have when you use it. Eli is a regular man who God seems to have called to do something amazing. Eli believes he is divinely chosen, divinely led, and divinely protected. On the other hand he’s kind of a Samurai- western hero who has crazy self-defense skills The bad guy in the movie, Carnegie rules a town using uneducated, killers and seeks to gain whatever meagre wealth is available in the dreary world. Carnegie believes that the words of the Bible will somehow provide him with another, less messy methods of control. Since only the older people know how to read the bible, Carnegie realizes that he can use the bible as a tool against weak minded and desperate people. Carnegie is not so different from the Pharisees and some of the medieval Popes in the church. Carnegie acts like he knows it all and he did, but just like the Pharisees in the bible Carnegie is really arrogant and wanted to look better and smarter than everyone. Carnegie has a friend Claudia who is blind. In the Christian belief, Claudia is the name of Pontius Pilate’s wife, who has a dream that Jesus is innocent and pleads with her husband to free him. Claudia enjoys the benefit of relative and random luxury because of her relationship with Carnegie, but she is the voice that requests for him to be more caring. Later in the movie, we find out the Claudia is the only person that can read and understand Eli’s book. Claudia has a daughter named Solara, a name that means both light and energy. Solara was sent to seduce Eli. She comes away deeply affected because Eli prays with her. She eventually attends Eli on his journey west. Claudia ends up being the only person Eli shares the bible, and explains why he believes it is important is restoring civilization. Scene Analysis In this scene we see the main character Eli with his companion Solara in what looks like an abandoned silo , sitting around a fire. Here we see Eli attempting to read a book that he has been carrying along west for thirty years. But Solara the girl that is with him by accident won’t let him do so. Solara really wants to know what the book is and why it is so important to Eli and her father. Eli doesn’t want to tell Solara what the book is and the power it has, but he eventually does. Eli puts the book down and starts saying some scriptures, here we realize that the book he has been carrying along for so long is a Bible. Neither one of these characters have a status above each other in this scene Seeing Denzel Washington play Eli in the movie in a way brings the character more to life. The movie would have been a lot more different if Jim Carry or Adam Sandler played Eli. It makes the audience respect the character more and in a small way relate to what he is going through a little more. Eli looks like a normal man, but he delivers a big punch. In the movie Eli’s backpack was as practical as it was tactical. To be able to pull this off the costume designers found an Oakley’s current style tactical backpack, with many straps and compartments. The backpack had a really rugged look to it making it look like it had gone through a lot. The coat he has on looks like a M51 military coat seen in many movies. He also wears a pair ofNike High tops with his coat. Solara wears a plaid shirt with a hood attached to the shirt. She wears the shirt with a ratty fur lined vest, and a pair of Paige demin jeans and some green boots. This scene takes place in thedesert at an abandon silo at night around a campfire . The land looks like a result to an aftermath of a nuclear war. This scene is crucial to the movie because for the fist time to anyone Eli tells them what the book is and why it is so important, and for the first time Solara gets an insight to Eli’s physical and spiritual life. Eli explains to Solara the entire story as to why he is headed West, he tells her that he heard a voice as clear as he is hearing her talk to him tell him that he had to take the book West. The voice told him that he would be safe and that nothing would bring harm to him. The lighting throughout the movie is low-key lighting. This is compromising a lighting pattern that has both dark and bright in the camera shot. This is called the dark bright technique using strong contrast employed to agitate the audience. Lighting in films is manipulated to arouse what emotions must be felt on a particular scene and help build tension. The figure behavior of Eli is content, maintaining minimal moving throughout the film to stay undetected and hidden. This suggests that he doesn’t want to drag attention the attention to himself and prefers to be alone. This is because he is protecting a book everyone wants to have. If you pay close attention throughout the movie you will notice that Eli is mostly framed upwards shots to show power. In this scene the director has close up shots on Solara when she is talking, but when Eli is moving or is talking it’s shot from further out. The director uses the low light key method. The shots are taken from up close, but in the back there is darkness everywhere. The sound in this scene starts off diegetic. It starts off with us just hearing Eli telling his story to Solara, and the sound of the fire crackling in the back. As El is going on with his story you slowly here this glorified music creeping in as he is talking. The music builds up and becomes intensified as Eli adds more courage and believes in what he is telling Solara. At the end the Director puts non-diegetic music into the scene to embellish our understanding of his story and his passion. Hidden Identity In the movie the book of Eli, Eli is blind. The movie has some biblical principles in it, and so if you’re a person that reads the Bible, there was an Eli in the bible who also was blind. He was also somewhat of a fighter. Halfway through the movie when Eli is walking on the bridge Eli could hear Carnegie’s men coming on their motorcycles . Later in the movie when Eli and Solara are at the old couples house he could hear the cars coming long before the others could. Like most blind people Eli’s other senses were intensified because he didn’t he have sight. He also had a great sense of smell. In the beginning of the Eli is about to get jumped by Carnegies bandits , but he smells them and says “One good thing about no soap anymore. You can smell the road agents a mile off.” When he was in the woods he didn’t shoot the wild cat until he heard it meow. He shot the bird flying through the air because he could hear it’s wings flapping. One of the best scenes in the movie is the gunfight scene. During the shoot out Eli didn’t shoot until the snipers shot at him. After he had shot all the men he walked out and didn’t shoot the men standing in the road. This is because the men on the road weren’t shooting at Eli and so Eli didn’t know the men were there because he couldn’t see them. When Eli and Solara find the old couples house Eli kick the first step because he didn’t know there were stairs there. After the fight in the Old couples house Eli waves his knife around, but didn’t fight because he couldn’t tell where the men were. They weren’t shooting or talking or moving so he had no idea how to fight them. During the fight at the beginning he could hear the fighters because they were cannibals . Later it explains that cannibals shake because they have had too much human meat. The men he fought, all shook their weapon, and the guy with the chainsaw was obvious. There is a lot of other evidence throughout the movie. Go see the movie again. You’ll be amazed at the things you’ll notice if you know from the start that he is blind. Plot The film opens in ash-filled woods. A carcass lies rotting on the ground and half-starved hairless cat climbs over it and begins nibbling at its feet. A figure in an NBC combat suit lies in wait. You see an arrow shoot into the cat, the cat gets killed instantly. Eli (Denzel Washington ) walks over to the cat, pulls out the arrow and bags it up for dinner. Eli walks through an abandoned road that takes place in a post-apocalyptic in 2043. He is a wanderer who is traveling out West. He finds an abandoned house and searches it for anything that could of use to him. The next morning, Eli wakes up and finds that hisiPod is almost dead. He uses a car battery to charge his iPod but he finds that its almost dead too. Eli leaves the house and continues his journey out West. He crosses paths with a woman with a broken shopping cart. The women asks for help, but Eli calls out the thugs that were hiding nearby, he tells them that he can smell them. The leader of the gang start pushing Eli around, wanting to rob him; Eli gives him one warning, he doesn’t listen to him, Eli suddenly cuts off the leaders hand with a machete . He fights the other 5 thugs at the same time and kills them all. He then walks over to the leader and kills him, robs the bodies of their valuables and walks away, continuing his journey West. Eli witnesses an attack on a couple from the top of a highway. The bikers kill the man, assault the woman and steal their books. Eli walks into a town, he finds an Engineer and trades him some KFC wet naps and a Zippo lighter for a recharge on his iPod battery. While he waits, he asks if there is a place where he could go to fill up his canteen. He crosses the street to the bar across the street. The bikers who killed the couple arrive at the bar and deliver the books and items they stole from the couple to Carnegie, Carnegie is the mayor of the improvised town. Carnegie is looking for a certain book, so he send his uneducated henchmen to collect all the books they can find. Downstairs, Eli trades gloves and an Arab scarf for a full canteen of water. The bartender has Solara fill Eli’s canteen up with water. While Eli is waiting a car walks in front him, Eli pushes it away. The lead bike walks up to Eli, ready to fight him for touching his car. Eli slams his face into the bar and gets up to leave, the entire bar attacks him. He kills them all but one, when Solara returns with the canteen and begs Eli to stop. Carnegie’s men arrive and hold a gun to Elis head and bring him to Eli. Carnegie is really impressed to meet Eli. He acknowledges Eli’s skill and that he is also educated man who knows scripture. Carnegie asks Eli to stay so he could use his fighting skills to keep control over the town. Eli tells Carnegie he doesn’t want to, but Carnegie forces him to stay the night. Claudia is sent to deliver food to Eli. He recognizes that Claudia is blind and asks her if she was blind her whole life or blinded by the flash, an event that occurred during the last Great War. Claudia tells him that she has been blind her entire life. Eli thanks her for bringing food and water to him. Carnegie thinks the best way to keep Eli in town is have Solara, Claudia’s daughter, sleep with Eli. Claudia begs him not to use Solara, but he sends her anyway. Eli doesn’t want to sleep with Solara, but she begs him to stay the night because she knows Carnegie will harm Claudia. Solara discover the book of Eli’s bed and gets excited, wanting to know more about it, even though she doesn’t know how to read, Eli won’t let her look at the book. The next morning Solara try’s to pray with her mother at breakfast. When Carnegies sees this he beats Claudia until Solara tells him what the book Eli was holding looked like. Solara puts her two index fingers in the shape of a cross . Carnegie sends his men to Eli’s room to see if he was still there. Eli had gone across the street to get his iPod to prepare to leave. Carnegie begs Eli to stay and to hand over the book, a Bible . Carnegie thinks that the Bible’s righteous scripture is the best to keep the town under control. Carnegie orders one of his men to shoot at Eli as he is walking away, but he misses him twice. Eli shoots and kills most of Carnegies men and walks away with out any injuries. Work Cited ' ' Category. "The Book of Eli - Denzel Washington Talks Book of Eli and Training for the Role." Movie Reviews, Trailers, Film Photos, News, and Interviews - About.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Apr. 2013. . Category. "The Book of Eli Cast - The Book of Eli Movie Credits Starring Denzel Washington and Mila Kunis." Movie Reviews, Trailers, Film Photos, News, and Interviews - About.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Apr. 2013. . Category. "The Book of Eli - Denzel Washington Talks Book of Eli and Training for the Role." Movie Reviews, Trailers, Film Photos, News, and Interviews - About.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2013. . "The Book of Eli (2010) - IMDb." IMDb - Movies, TV and Celebrities. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2013. . year. "The Book of Eli movie questions and answers." Movie mistakes - goofs, bloopers, pictures, quotes and trivia from thousands of movies. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2013. "Is Book Of Eli A Christian Movie? We Ask The Hughes Bros.." io9 - We come from the future.. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2013. http://io9.com/5447710/is-book-of-eli-a-christian-movie-we-ask-the-hughes-bros " The book of Eli's hidden meaning. - David Icke's Official Forums." David Icke Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2013. . Freymann, ISawItIn Editors A few folks spotted this cool vacation style bag that Meryl Streep carried in this scene from It's Complicated. The beach tote striped bag is a prior year's style from designer Roberta. "The Book of Eli - ISawItIn.com Fashions from the Movies." ISawItIn.com Fashions from the Movies. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2013. . "The Book of Eli (2010) - Soundtracks - IMDb." IMDb - Movies, TV and Celebrities. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2013. " Denzel Washington Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story - Biography.com ." ''Famous Biographies & TV Shows - Biography.com ''. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2013. . Category:Works Cited